EJECT(1) User Commands EJECT(1)
NAME
eject - eject removable media
SYNOPSIS
eject -h
eject [-vnrsfq] [<name>]
eject [-vn] -d
eject [-vn] -a on|off|1|0 [<name>]
eject [-vn] -c slot [<name>]
eject [-vn] -t [<name>]
DESCRIPTIONEject allows removable media (typically a CD-ROM, floppy
disk, tape, or JAZ or ZIP disk) to be ejected under soft-
ware control. The command can also control some multi-disc
CD-ROM changers, the auto-eject feature supported by some
devices, and close the disc tray of some CD-ROM drives.
The device corresponding to <name> is ejected. The name
can be a device file or mount point, either a full path or
with the leading "/dev" or "/mnt" omitted. If no name is
specified, the default name "cdrom" is used.
There are four different methods of ejecting, depending on
whether the device is a CD-ROM, SCSI device, removable
floppy, or tape. By default eject tries all four methods
in order until it succeeds.
If the device is currently mounted, it is unmounted before
ejecting.
COMMAND-LINEOPTIONS-h This option causes eject to display a brief descrip-
tion of the command options.
-v This makes eject run in verbose mode; more informa-
tion is displayed about what the command is doing.
-d If invoked with this option, eject lists the default
device name.
-aon|1|off|0
This option controls the auto-eject mode, supported
by some devices. When enabled, the drive automati-
cally ejects when the device is closed.
-c<slot>
With this option a CD slot can be selected from an
ATAPI/IDE CD-ROM changer. Linux 2.0 or higher is
required to use this feature. The CD-ROM drive can
not be in use (mounted data CD or playing a music CD)
for a change request to work. Please also note that
the first slot of the changer is referred to as 0,
not 1.
-t With this option the drive is given a CD-ROM tray
close command. Not all devices support this command.
-n With this option the selected device is displayed but
no action is performed.
-r This option specifies that the drive should be
ejected using a CDROM eject command.
-s This option specifies that the drive should be
ejected using SCSI commands.
-f This option specifies that the drive should be
ejected using a removable floppy disk eject command.
-q This option specifies that the drive should be
ejected using a tape drive offline command.
LONGOPTIONS
All options have corresponding long names, as listed
below. The long names can be abbreviated as long as they
are unique.
-h --help
-v --verbose
-d --default
-a --auto
-c --changerslot
-t --trayclose
-n --noop
-r --cdrom
-s --scsi
-f --floppy
-q --tape
EXAMPLES
Eject the default device:
eject
Eject a device or mount point named cdrom:
eject cdrom
Eject using device name:
eject /dev/cdrom
Eject using mount point:
eject /mnt/cdrom/
Eject 4th IDE device:
eject hdd
Eject first SCSI device:
eject sda
Eject using SCSI partition name (e.g. a ZIP drive):
eject sda4
Select 5th disc on mult-disc changer:
eject -v -c5 /dev/cdrom
Turn on auto-eject on a SoundBlaster CD-ROM drive:
eject -a on /dev/sbpcd
EXITSTATUS
Returns 0 if operation was successful, 1 if operation
failed or command syntax was not valid.
NOTESEject only works with devices that support one or more of
the four methods of ejecting. This includes most CD-ROM
drives (IDE, SCSI, and proprietary), some SCSI tape
drives, JAZ drives, ZIP drives (parallel port, SCSI, and
IDE versions), and LS120 removable floppies. Users have
also reported success with floppy drives on Sun SPARC and
Apple Macintosh systems. If eject does not work, it is
most likely a limitation of the kernel driver for the
device and not the eject program itself.
The -r, -s, -f, and -q options allow controlling which
methods are used to eject. More than one method can be
specified. If none of these options are specified, it
tries all four (this works fine in most cases).
Eject may not always be able to determine if the device is
mounted (e.g. if it has several names). If the device name
is a symbolic link, eject will follow the link and use the
device that it points to.
If eject determines that the device can have multiple par-
titions, it will attempt to unmount all mounted partitions
of the device before ejecting. If an unmount fails, the
program will not attempt to eject the media.
You can eject an audio CD. Some CD-ROM drives will refuse
to open the tray if the drive is empty. Some devices do
not support the tray close command.
If the auto-eject feature is enabled, then the drive will
always be ejected after running this command. Not all
Linux kernel CD-ROM drivers support the auto-eject mode.
There is no way to find out the state of the auto-eject
mode.
You need appropriate privileges to access the device
files. Running as root or setuid root is required to eject
some devices (e.g. SCSI devices).
The heuristic used to find a device, given a name, is as
follows. If the name ends in a trailing slash, it is
removed (this is to support filenames generated using
shell file name completion). If the name starts with '.'
or '/', it tries to open it as a device file or mount
point. If that fails, it tries prepending '/dev/',
'/mnt/', device file or mount point is found that can be
opened. The program checks /etc/mtab for mounted devices.
If that fails, it also checks /etc/fstab for mount points
of currently unmounted devices.
Creating symbolic links such as /dev/cdrom or /dev/zip is
recommended so that eject can determine the appropriate
devices using easily remembered names.
To save typing you can create a shell alias for the eject
options that work for your particular setup.
AUTHOREject was written by Jeff Tranter (tranter@pobox.com) and
is released under the conditions of the GNU General Public
License. See the file COPYING and notes in the source code
for details.
SEEALSO
mount(2), umount(2), mount(8), umount(8)
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/cdrom/
Linux 21 January 1999 1